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Higher ed officials worried about Pawlenty's budget cuts

Minnesota college leaders say tuition hikes
would be a last -- but possibly unavoidable -- option for coping with anticipated state budget cuts.

Top officials, including University of Minnesota President
Robert Bruininks, are pleading with state lawmakers
to make shallower cuts than Gov. Tim Pawlenty has proposed.

Pawlenty's plan for closing a nearly $1 billion budget gap
slices state aid to public colleges by about $54 million.

Bruininks says the university fully expects to face some aid
reductions. But he says it will be tough to absorb a $27 million
cut without laying off workers, stifling new investment in research
and technology or raising tuition.

"I'm not coming here to tell you the University of Minnesota
should not be part of the solution," he told a House committee
that oversees higher education. "But I am coming here to tell you
this cut is too deep."

Minnesota State Colleges and Universities vice chancellor Laura
King also told the committee that tuition increases would be a last
resort, but could not be ruled out.

"There is no way for us to remove this much money from the
budget without a serious impact on students, on faculty and on the
strategic initiatives that include providing the educated work
force Minnesota needs," she said.

DFL Rep. Tom Rukavina of Virginia, chairman of the House Higher Education Committee, said he thinks the governor's plan is unacceptable.

"Governor Pawlenty is going to have to -- to use a Range term -- belly up to the bar here and do something to solve this problem. Because his 'No new tax' pledge isn't working," said Rukavina. "I am not going to be the one who corrects the errors that have been made and again forces tuition increases back on these students."

During his budget presentation last week, Gov. Pawlenty suggested the university could trim its administration costs.
A new report from the Minnesota Office of Higher Education found
that tuition and fees -- adjusted for grants -- for first-year,
full-time students in 2005-06 were $4,720 at Minnesota's public
universities.

That's about twice the national average and slightly
higher than its Big Ten peer states. Minnesota's two-year schools
showed similar patterns.